A Pawn's Passage

The woman’s long skirt reached the floor. She had a nice figure and a slim waist. She was beautiful with an oval face, willow-leaf eyebrows, upturned eyes, and small, round lips. However, at this time, she was so frightened that her face turned pale.

She covered her mouth and asked, “S-Sir…what are you doing?”

Qi Xuansu said expressionlessly, “I have been in the army for a long time, so I’m used to sleeping with my clothes on. My weapons also never leave my body.”

While speaking, Qi Xuansu had already stood up.

His shadow, illuminated by the light, continued to lengthen as he stood up. The light and shadows in the room were in disarray.

“Sir, what are you doing?” The woman stepped back, but there was no sound of footsteps, only some rustling.

Qi Xuansu turned his attention to the object that the woman was holding. It turned out to be a box, which was only slightly larger than a human head. It was impossible for a brocade quilt to fit in it.

He snorted coldly. “Miss, did you fit the brocade quilt in this box? What’s really in this box, huh?”

Evil spirits were afraid of evil people. Qi Xuansu had never considered himself a good person. With his Martial Arts Practitioner’s blood qi and intense killing aura developed from years of fighting, even the vengeful ghosts who had been around for a hundred years would avoid him.

The woman’s face turned pale. “I’m only a maid. But I fell in love at first sight upon seeing you, sir. That’s why I came here using the excuse of delivering a quilt to you…”

A blush appeared on her pale face as she bit her lips shyly. “I thought that if I could be with you, I wouldn’t have to be a maid anymore. That’s why I came over…”

She looked so pitiful that most people would feel bad for speaking to her harshly.

For some reason, Qi Xuansu’s mind wandered to Zhang Yuelu. He had never seen Zhang Yuelu behave like this. She was like a warrior, unyielding and unswerving. He wondered if he would ever get to see Zhang Yuelu looking so meek in his lifetime.

This fleeting thought faded in a flash. Qi Xuansu stopped his mind from wandering further, secretly thinking that he must have been poisoned by Zhang Yuelu because he was always thinking about her.

Qi Xuansu suddenly laughed and moved his hands away from his weapons.

Seeing this, the woman breathed a sigh of relief.

Qi Xuansu sized up the woman. “Miss, you should’ve said so sooner. I’m a crude person, so I don’t understand when you beat around the bush. It turns out that you’re here to offer yourself up to me. Come here, pretty lady. You can warm my bed.”

The charming smile resurfaced on the woman’s face. She was about to step forward when Qi Xuansu suddenly spoke.

Qi Xuansu glanced at the hem of the woman’s skirt and suddenly said, “You know, my mother once told me a story when I was young.”

“What story?” The woman was curious.

Qi Xuansu answered, “There was once a scholar who lived in an ancient temple. He studied hard all day. That night, when he was lounging in the yard, he suddenly heard someone calling out to him. The scholar looked back, only to see the face of a beautiful woman above the wall. The woman smiled at him and disappeared in an instant.”

The woman stopped not far from Qi Xuansu and asked softly, “What happened next?”

Qi Xuansu continued, “The scholar was elated. That night, an old monk who went over to talk to him saw the demonic energy around the scholar and figured that he must have seen a beautiful snake demon. Legend says that a demon with a human head and a snake body would call out their target’s names. If the target responded, the snake would come to eat this person’s flesh at night.”

All this while, Qi Xuansu was staring at the woman intently.

Under Qi Xuansu’s gaze, the woman became a little stiff.

Qi Xuansu stared at the woman, his tone flat as he told the story. “The scholar was frightened, but the old monk had a solution. The old monk gave the scholar a small box to place next to his pillow so he could sleep peacefully. Although the scholar did as he was told, he still could not sleep. In the middle of the night, there was a rustling sound outside the door, like the wind and rain.

“Just as the scholar was shivering from fear, he saw a golden light coming from his pillow. When this golden light appeared, the rustling sounds outside stopped. After a while, the golden light went back into the box. Later, the old monk told the scholar that the golden light was actually a flying centipede that fed on the brains of snakes. That was how the beautiful snake demon died.”

The woman turned pale upon hearing this story. “That’s such a scary story!”

Qi Xuansu smiled, flashing his pearly whites. “Miss, I wonder if your box contains a flying centipede that can eat snake brains.”

“Sir, you must be joking. I have never heard of snake demons and flying centipedes.” The woman forced an awkward smile.

Qi Xuansu lowered his head, turning his attention to the woman’s floor-length skirt. “Everyone talks about how beautiful women’s feet are. Miss, will you let me take a look at yours?”

The moment Qi Xuansu lowered his head, the woman stretched out five fingers to grab his head. A white and tender hand with red fingernails rose into the sky as the woman let out a scream and backed away.

At some point, Qi Xuansu had brandished his short sword. He sneered. “I have experienced many battles, so I wouldn’t let a demon like you attack me.”

The woman was self-aware of her strength, so she turned around and ran away.

However, Qi Xuansu was faster, catching up with her in a few steps and grabbing her skirt.

With the sound of fabric tearing, what was underneath the skirt was revealed—the thick body of a snake with dark blue patterns on its scales, gorgeous and mysterious.

It was no wonder Qi Xuansu’s Yin-Yang Eyes did not see anything unusual. Demons were also living creatures, so they had yang energy. Only dead things carried yin energy.

“Demon! How dare you attack me?!” Qi Xuansu roared, which sounded like the spring thunder. A gust of blood qi spurted out.

The woman was shocked by a Martial Arts Practitioner’s roar. Her figure froze.

In the blink of an eye, Qi Xuansu had caught up with the snake demon again, grabbed her hair, and dragged her back into the room with his brute strength. At the same time, he used Qing Yuan to stab the demon’s heart from the back.

Zhang Yuelu once said that the Daoist Order did not believe in killing all demons and ghosts indiscriminately. All creatures were to be vetted first. However, there were differing opinions in the Daoist community advocating for the elimination of all demons and ghosts. Thus, who was in the right and who was in the wrong was a matter of perspective.

Qi Xuansu believed that demons and humans were inherently different. Although he did not think that all demons were evil, there was no difference between demons and wild beasts.

To Qi Xuansu, demons were like the tigers or bears in the mountains. Humans would not reason with a wild beast, telling it to have mercy on mankind. Similarly, animals acted on instinct. There was no right or wrong in the situation when an animal killed a human and was hunted down by other humans as a result.

He believed that those who had sympathy for a man-eating animal were hypocritical, as those people were turning a blind eye to their own kind who was killed by said animal.

At this time, this snake demon wanted to kill him, so Qi Xuansu would certainly not hold back.

Qi Xuansu’s short sword pierced through the snake demon’s heart. However, snake demons were different from humans anatomically. The heart was not her vital organ. Therefore, instead of dying, she grew more ferocious.

The lower half of her body, which resembled that of a snake, suddenly elongated to its original length. She coiled her tail tightly around Qi Xuansu, trying to strangle him to death.

Her upper body was still in human form, but she was no longer as charming as before. Her voice was sharp as she yelled, “How dare you try and kill me?! I won’t let you get out of here alive!”

Her small, round lips from earlier widened, revealing her terrifying fangs and forked tongue. Then she bit down on Qi Xuansu’s head.

At this time, Qi Xuansu’s short sword was still stuck in the snake demon’s back. So he had no choice but to catch the snake demon’s mouth with both hands, stretching the snake demon’s upper and lower jaws to prevent her from biting down on his head.

He could only withstand the bite force and being crushed to death thanks to his exceptional Martial Arts Practitioner’s physique.

The two were at a stalemate.

Qi Xuansu sneered. He stopped pretending to be a pure Martial Arts Practitioner and used his Rogue Cultivator’s innate qi. He exerted some force in both hands and tore open the snake demon’s mouth.

The snake demon unleashed a blood-curdling scream and immediately lost its strength. The snake tail also loosened its grip around Qi Xuansu.

At this moment, Qi Xuansu noticed that the ghost-expelling talismans drawn on the wall were lit up, signaling the presence of a ghost.

His heart dropped.